mutli-thread socket connection

Hi!

Just wondering if it is possible to create multi-thread socket (HTTP) connections using JAVA or C or any other language.

Suppose i need to retrieve multiple stock prices for the symbols ABC, CSCO, JDS...etc. I can do this by making an HTTP socket connection to NASDAQ's or TSE's website (doesn't matter which website i connect to). Anyways, i can retrieve the HTML off the site and parse out the current stock price for CSCO. Once i have CSCO's price, i make another HTTP socket connection to retrieve the price for JDS, and so on i continue to retrieve all the prices i need one by one. Obviously this takes an extremely long time.

So is it possible to retrieve all the stock prices i need, all at the same time by simultaneously making multiple socket connections? If so, how? what should i use? If not on Java, are you aware of any other applications/programming languages that would allow me make multiple socket connections?

I'm currently using APACHE 1.3.x with PHP and javaservlets on redhat linux.